


This is the Time, The Middle of the Night

by VJR22_6



Series: Seeing Colors-A Soulmate AU [2]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Gen, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate AU, also the last paragraph is about moonvasion so maybe save this for later if you havent seen that yet, more sabrewing sisters content cause i would die for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 07:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20689856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VJR22_6/pseuds/VJR22_6
Summary: Violet only believed in rational thought until the Shadow War, and didn't believe in colors until she was surrounded by her friends and family.





	This is the Time, The Middle of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Black City Lights' "Offering," which is a song found in an episode of Welcome to Night Vale. Violet absolutely listens to WTNV, in my head.

Violet’s always known purple. The irises in the orphanage garden, the covers of the books she’d read in the library, and even her own reflection, all shades of her very own violet. Everything else was grays, waiting to be filled in by the people she knew would love her, someday.

Other kids at the orphanage knew colors. The twin sisters she shared a room with knew each other’s pink and green. When the boy from across the hall met the young couple who ended up adopting him, he found out what red and blue looked like. They used to sit in the dining area with Violet and tell her all about what they could see, what their colors made them feel. Happiness, and love, and safety, all the things that soulmates were supposed to mean.

Each of them was adopted, and Violet left behind, still lost in a world of stormy grays.

After another year of holding the record for the longest orphanage stage, two young men come hoping to adopt an older girl. Verdin and Andean, Mrs. Cavanaugh introduces the sharply dressed couple. They hold hands beneath the desk as Mrs. Cavanaugh introduces them to Violet. She keeps her shy head low, feet swinging from the tall plastic chair.

Verdin is a lawyer, she learns, and Andean a writer who works from home. The two of them will be perfect for Violet. She nods as Mrs. Cavanaugh tells her this, smiles when the men say “goodbye” and “see you soon.” Late that night, in her room, she gazes out at the hollow face of the moon and worries about saying goodbye to the only world she can remember, even if that means she will get the family she’s been hoping for.

Between paperwork and home checks, adoption takes time. But the young men are allowed to take her on outings, sometimes, and Andean seizes the opportunity early on. He takes her down to the busy city center, and then to the beautiful white steps of the big library. “I volunteer here on weekends,” he tells her. “I figured a smart girl like you would enjoy a visit.”

Violet’s nearly speechless, so she just nods. She runs toward the steps, skipping every other one, and Andean laughs. She watches as he follows her, albeit a bit slower, and then he takes her hand to lead her inside. He swipes his card, nods to the librarian with spiked hair and old-fashioned glasses, and leads them to the shelves.

It’s breathtaking. The smell of books-her favorite scent-surrounds her like a warm blanket on a rainy day. And it’s quiet enough that she can hear her heartbeat rushing in her ears, excitement flooding her veins. Among the shelves of mystery novels, with Andean helping her to reach the highest titles, she learns of her first soulmate color: brilliant indigo.

On the way out, Andean offers to buy her a bookmark from the counter by the door, and she picks one in the new, beautiful color. Seeing it tucked into her storybooks eases her anxious heart into excitement for the future.

Two weekends later, Verdin takes her out to buy brand new clothes. She’s only worn donated outfits before, or hand-me-downs from the older kids, when there were older kids. To be allowed to wear something of her very own… the entire car ride is full of her tapping her feet in anticipation.

Verdin tells her she can have anything she wants, anything at all, so she pokes her head through racks until she finds the perfect warm sweater. It’s practical and comfortable, and most of all it just feels like her, more than anything she’s ever worn. She spends a long few minutes just twirling in front of the big mirrors, delighted to be herself.

Verdin steps up behind her, looking at their reflections. He settles a gentle hand on her shoulder and tells her she looks perfect. She smiles, and blinks, and sees that something miraculous has happened. His facial feathers aren’t gray anymore, but a vivid yellow, and he’s grinning so warmly at her. It feels perfect.

That day, she begins to understand what the other kids meant about love and safety.

Finally, Violet’s last day comes. She packs away all but one of her books, extra careful with the borrowed ones, and folds her new outfits neatly. She sets the suitcase beside her for the night, mindful that this is the last time she’ll sleep in this bed, and settles down with her favorite book to read a bit before she rests.

Outside, the younger kids are using the last of the daylight to play a game of tag. Some of the kids close to her age are down the hall playing board games, and she can hear their laughter clearly. And then there’s her roommate, a rather spirited girl who arrived a week ago with only a stained photograph and hockey equipment. 

She’s watching Darkwing Duck, because of course she is, she can’t stop talking about the old show. The volume’s low, though, so Violet just reads through a chapter of her book in peace. She’s a page and a half into the next one when her companion pauses her show and asks, “What’s it like, seeing in color?”

“It’s… beautiful,” Violet admits, tapping the beautiful illustration of the sky on her bookmark, vivid against the page she’s marking. “I only know two colors besides my own, and yet I feel as if I can see a new world.”

“They must be great for you, then,” she mutters. Violet closes her book and sits up from her pillows, while her roommate collapses into her own. Vi shakes her head. She was too young to remember her own parents dying, but her companion lost her grandfather just a month ago, and the wounds are still fresh.

“Did you lose a color?” She asks abruptly. No use avoiding it, she thinks. It’s best to be blunt.

“Yeah,” she murmurs. “Used to see brown, like chocolates and stuff? It’s fading.”

“Keep the memory close,” she replies softly. “One day, both of us will be able to see all the colors in a crayon box, and we will fill our worlds with them.”

The next day, Violet officially becomes a Sabrewing. Her new bedroom is massive, far bigger than she imagined, and there’s a bookshelf built into one wall. She fills it with her favorites, and her dads support her as she shapes herself into who she’d always hoped to become: into someone practical and smart, ambitious but reasonable. She aces every class, makes everyone proud, and fills her life with as much indigo, purple, and yellow things as she can.

That is, until the Shadows arrive.

She’s taking the long way home from school, planning on stopping on the beach to observe the eclipse before heading home. She should be just in time to set the table for dinner, and Andean will be there to take her backpack and talk about her day. She’ll show him the A on her history test and ask him how his latest chapter is coming along, and then she’ll hide behind the front door to spook Verdin when he comes in. Just like always.

Except none of that happens, because her shadow tears itself from her and swings a punch. She swings back with her book, shoving her special bookmark into the middle of the binding to protect it. Then she takes off at a run, terrified. She doesn’t have time to pull her phone out or even to call for help, she just breathlessly sprints for home, dodging the dark spirits and using her book as her weapon.

She’s halfway there, almost ready to leave the beach and weave through the neighborhood, when one of the creatures appears in front of her. The vague shape smacks the book from her hands, and she stumbles backward just as the day turns to night. Suddenly, something out in the water explodes, and in a rush of black and purple the shadows are gone. Then, just as quickly, something glowing purple flies into the sand beside her, and she flinches.

A staff? It glows brighter, then, and transforms magically into an amulet glowing in her color. It falls into the sand, still glowing, and she picks it up with concern and wonder. It’s got a huge gash down the center, and the glow quickly fades. She shoves it into her bag without a second thought, sprinting straight home without shadows to stop her.

Verdin’s car is parked askew in the driveway, and the front door is open. She runs across the perfectly manicured lawn, panting, and practically flies onto the porch and then inside. She pants, slamming the door shut, and her dads run over and kneel down beside her. “Vi, honey, are you okay?” “Did they hurt you? What happened?”

She just shakes her head, drops her backpack, and falls into their arms. Right now, she just needs someone to reassure her that her world is still standing. They hold each other on the floor for a long minute, and the warmth of family around her makes Vi feel a little better, at least.

All her life, she’d ignored magic, assumed it was stories that had been told and retold and were just fiction, now. But clutching that amulet, wrapped in a blanket in the dark that night, she knows she was wrong. Magic is all around her, and she desperately wants to explain it rationally, and none of her books explain.

Much like the many grays she can’t color, yet, because she has yet to meet the people she eventually will.

For weeks Violet browses supernatural books. Her Saturdays are library volunteer days, so she signs up for the supernatural reference section and learns her way around quickly. The usual librarian, Mrs. Quackfaster, even helps her compile a research list to work through.

She reads every book they put on that list, and then makes a new one, and reads through those. It’s entirely too frustrating, and she’s about to give up and accept that there are terrifyingly inexplicable elements of life, when she discovers the concept of tulpas.

She selects the ancient Syriac book “Spirits of the Shadow Realm” one cool morning, and settles down just aside from the shelves. It’s quiet, and orderly, and the smell of books surrounds her, and she gets lost in it all too easily.

When a silhouette in the cover of her vision comes bouncing up, babbling far too loudly for the library, she holds up a hand. She finishes the page, indigo bookmark tucked into the middle of the spine, and then looks up. “Yes?”

She sees pink.

It’s a beautiful color, soft and friendly, and it looks like a spring breeze feels. It’s so fresh and new and welcome. She’s wearing a bow and a shirt in this color, and she’s delighted to learn Violet can also speak ancient Syriac. And Akkadian. And Old Norse.

So what if Mrs. Quackfaster thinks they’re nerds? Webbigail is endlessly interesting, a friend finally as literate as she is. She even hurries home so she can persuade Andean to help her bake a pie to bring as a gift.

That night, she learns another color: shimmering, delightful blue. It’s a gentle, welcome color, but fierce sometimes, too. Just like the shadow who gives it to her.

She offers up her home for Lena, curious about the Shadow Realm and Magica. Violet quickly realizes, however, that her new soulmate is hurt, in many ways, and that it’s really better not to pry. Instead, she teaches Lena about classic books that she likes, and Lena shows her a bunch of horror movies she and Webby watched together.

Then she gets to know the triplets, and discovers three new beautiful colors. Red, like the setting sun and roses in the garden. Green, she sees in dollar bills and leaves rustling in the wind. And a second kind of blue, this one bolder and more daring. She feels complete, running through a dream world surrounded by colors and friends.

She stands with Lena when they must face Magica, and when her dads offer to adopt the shadow girl, she’s the most delighted. Lena changes from friend to sister, and in each other’s arms, she knows that Lena sees purple like she sees that perfect blue.

When the Moonlanders invade, they fight side-by-side. Lena casts a spell for Violet, handing her a Morningstar in lavender, and she swings at half of a crowd while her sister shoots from above, knocking out the rest. Then they run together, into the woods, and fight for the people that were captured. When it’s all over, in the throng of people at the mansion, they stand together amidst it all and know they’re strong as anyone else, so long as they’re together.

**Author's Note:**

> Commemt pleeeese i need validation


End file.
